Study: Nearly half of Oklahoma's Section 8 vouchers expire before they can be used

For people who can't afford their own place to live, getting a Section 8 housing voucher can be a relief or even a cause for celebration.

The realities of the housing market, however, mean nearly half of those vouchers expire before they can be used.

A nationwide study found that just 55% of households awarded a Section 8 voucher were able to redeem it, according to new reporting from USA Today .

The problem is getting worse. Between 2018 and 2022, the share of households unable to use their voucher increased from 35% to 45%, according to the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University.

More: Voucher program is supposed to help poor families rent a home. Nearly half the time, it fails.

In Oklahoma, data shows that only about three of every five housing vouchers are successfully redeemed before they expire.

“It’s a dire situation,” said Ingrid Gould Ellen, director of the Furman Center and one of the authors of the study. “That after winning the lottery, essentially, and getting this voucher, many of them may be searching and searching and unsuccessful. That is tragic for that individual family.”

What is Section 8?

The Section 8 voucher program emerged in the 1970s as a replacement for housing projects, which were being torn down after decades of neglect and mismanagement.

Instead of building a place to live and letting people stay there, the government would now subsidize the cost of renting from a private landlord.

The program includes an income-based rent cap that the federal government would supplement. It's become the largest rental assistance program in the United States, and is currently a lifeline for more than 2.3 million households.

After years of languishing on a waitlist to get the voucher, they can have as few as 60 days before it expires, a time frame in which less than a third of tenants are successful, according to the Furman Center’s analysis.

Finding a Section 8 home in Oklahoma City

Last year, the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency stopped accepting new Section 8 applications because demand far exceeded funding. This has essentially frozen the waiting list statewide.

Then the Oklahoma City Housing Authority said last month that it was in “imminent” danger of running out of housing vouchers for more than 10,000 people currently on the waiting list.

Mark Gillett, director of the Oklahoma City Housing Authority, told The Oklahoman that his agency is dangerously close to a shortfall of federal funding for its housing vouchers due to “rents going through the roof."

Rents in Oklahoma City have skyrocketed over the past three years, with Redfin reporting the city saw the fastest-rising rents (31.7%) among the country’s 50 largest cities in 2022.

The federal government has made some recent changes to help address the issue, such as increasing the cash value of the vouchers to better keep pace with rents.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Study: Nearly half of Oklahoma's Section 8 vouchers expire before they can be used